


ATLA In Words

by ace_bookdragon



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Agni Kai (Avatar), Gen, Rewrite, The Last Agni Kai (Avatar), Trauma, day of black sun part 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26640694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ace_bookdragon/pseuds/ace_bookdragon
Summary: I decided to put some of my favorite scenes from ATLA into writing. Most of the dialogue here is from the show, with little modification. I tried to add more Trauma™ as well.Contains spoilers. Chapters are named after the episode they take place in.I may or may not update this sometime in the future. This just kinda happened.
Kudos: 10





	ATLA In Words

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is only a little bit of Zuko's big moment in the middle of Season 3. I hope you enjoy.

Zuko has spent so much of his life in fear of his father. But now he stands in Ozai’s hidden chamber during the eclipse, defying him. 

The room is long and large, with a space at one end tiled in red and gold, two steps leading up to a low platform. The banner of the Fire Nation hangs proudly on the wall behind its leader. 

“Get out!” Ozai tells him, rising angrily. His finger points to the door like an arrow. “Get out of my sight right now if you know what’s good for you!” 

But Zuko doesn’t, refuses to obey the order. He forces himself to not move, to keep himself standing tall and proud, even though his father still scares him. “I’m not taking orders from you anymore.”

“You will obey me, or this defiant breath will be your last!”

His father’s anger flares, hot like the firebending he cannot use for a precious few minutes, and for a second Zuko is a child again, cowering on the floor as he begged his father to give him mercy. 

He steels himself and pulls out his swords, the blades gleaming brightly in the light. “Think again.” His voice is stronger than he remembers, the voice of someone new. Not the child who was punished with a scar and banishment, not the boy bent on finding the Avatar. Someone different, who can finally recognize his mistakes and learn from them, who knows his path. 

“I am going to speak my mind, and you are going to listen.”

Ozai flashes him a furious look and sits down heavily. Zuko pauses, gathering himself, carefully choosing his next words.

“For so long, all I wanted was for you to love me, to accept me. I thought it was my honor I wanted, but really, I was just trying to please you. You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn. My father, who challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy, to an Agni Kai. How could you possibly justify a duel with a child?” 

“It was to teach you respect!”

“It was cruel, and it was wrong!”

“Then you’ve learned nothing.”

In those four words, Zuko can hear three years’ worth of dislike and anger, disgust and scorn. His father hates him so much, has hated him for a long time, and even though he knows that he’ll never have it, a tiny part of him aches for Ozai’s love. How strange, that after all that his father has done to him, he still wants that small, precious thing.

“No. I've learned everything. And I've had to learn it on my own. 

“We’ve always been taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in the world. That somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the other kingdoms. But that was all an amazing lie, wasn’t it. The people of the world are terrified by us. They don’t see what we’re trying to give them. They hate us!” Zuko pauses for a second, then says, “And we deserve it. We have created an era of fear in the world, and if we don’t want the world to destroy itself, then we have to replace that fear with peace and kindness.”

Ozai’s face darkens, then clears as he sees what has turned his son against him. A cruel laugh escapes his lips. “Your uncle has gotten to you, hasn’t he.” He spits it out like the vilest poison, like the words will taint him if they stay in his mouth too long.

“Yes,” Zuko says, a proud smile splitting his features for the briefest second. “He has.” 

Ozai’s lips turn down in a frown, and Zuko can almost _feel_ the emotions roiling in him. He knows that when the eclipse ends, Ozai’s wrath will be the most terrible thing in the world. He will do much more than burn his face this time.

“After I leave here, I’m going to free Uncle Iroh from prison, and I’ll beg for his forgiveness. He’s the one who’s been a real father to me.” Zuko can’t stop the slight tremor in his voice now. He hopes that Iroh will forgive him. Zuko’s made so many mistakes. Done the wrong thing too many times. Maybe his uncle will have judged him unworthy of his forgiveness.

But he has to try.

Ozai laughs again, mirthless and cold. “That’s just beautiful. Perhaps he can pass down his ways of tea and failure.”

“I've come to an even more important decision, though.” Zuko pauses for a moment, closing his eyes, steeling himself for the final words that will mean his father will never give him whatever shred of love and forgiveness still in his heart. Once he says this, he cannot go back. “I'm going to join the Avatar, and I'm going to help him defeat you.”

“Really. Since you’re a full-blown traitor now and you want me gone, why wait?” A hint of savage amusement touches Ozai’s tone. Something cold and calculating, like Azula. “I’m powerless, and you’ve got your swords, why don’t you just do it now?”

When Zuko speaks, his voice is full of conviction. He knows his destiny now. It is his destiny, not the one his father had pushed upon him as a punishment. Not the one he tried to chase, even as his life pushed him in a different direction. The one he tried to find time after time, spent months agonizing over, going through the change that has brought him all to this day, to this place. He is finally parting with what he thought was his destiny, instead forging a path to peace. 

So he sheaths his swords and faces his father one final time. “Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the Avatar’s destiny. Goodbye.”

Zuko pivots on his heel and makes his way toward the back of the room. He does not look back.


End file.
